Deutsche Bank Co-CEOs Resign; Shares Jump 8%

Investors welcomed a management overhaul at Deutsche Bank, as shares at Germany's biggest bank surged the most in two years.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Deutsche Bank (DB) shares surged the most in two years as investors welcomed a management overhaul at Germany's biggest bank. The appointment of John Cryan as chief executive of Deutsche Bank sent shares in the German bank and lender up 8% on Monday as investors judged the Briton a more credible contender than his two ousted predecessors to revive the bank's fortunes.

Cryan faces one of the most difficult jobs in global finance as he aims to move Deutsche Bank beyond the raft of regulatory and legal probes that have bedeviled the bank under its current management and execute a strategic overhaul. Cryan takes over from Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen, Deutsche's co-chief executives, who announced their resignations on Sunday, just over a month after unveiling a cost-cutting drive designed to arrest the bank's sub-par performance.

Investor skepticism greeted the turnaround plan, due to a lack of detail and a poor record on meeting targets, together with staff disquiet at the prospect of thousands of job cuts. That heaped pressure on the duo. At the bank's annual shareholder meeting two weeks ago, 39% of the capital represented voted against the management board, and some investors called for Jain and Fitschen to go.

Deutsche Bank has pledged to give more detail on its strategic revamp at the end of next month, and some investors were hopeful that Cryan, who helped steer Swiss bank UBS (UBS) through the financial crisis, would be able to take more radical action than Jain, a former investment banker who wanted Deutsche Bank to be Europe's answer to Goldman Sachs (GS).